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There's No Place Like Home

Shine like the bright lights over New York City / Oklahoma's sunset has color, but so does autumn in Central Park

-Common Rotation, "Oklahoma"

Clint tried the knob. Unsurprisingly, it turned and the door opened. Clint rolled his eyes upward as he entered the apartment and called out, "STEVEN GRANT ROGERS! What did I tell you about locking your door?"

Clint stood in the doorway to the small apartment and looked around the living room, waiting for Steve to materialize. It was clear the man was home, as when he left the the place Steve made sure everything was in order and put away. (He also tended to lock the door.) The table was covered in odd paper, there were several canvases half done leaning against the wall near the dining table, and Clint was pretty sure there was blue paint on the window.

"I know, I know, I know," Steve said, popping out of the kitchen drying his hands. The towel he was using looked like a rainbow had thrown up on it. Clint raised his eyebrows and took in Steve's appearance. Steve glanced down at himself and cringed. "Sorry. I'll change."

"I don't care you're covered in paint," Clint scoffed, flopping his free hand and slamming the door behind him. He pointedly locked it behind him. "Since returning from the Land of the Gods, Witton is freaky when it comes to food. I don't know what they did to her, but I saw her eating a tomato this morning for breakfast. A tomato! Last I heard, she hated tomatoes."

Steve hummed in a similar manner Loki tended to when he wasn't fully paying attention to what was being said due to the fact his mind was elsewhere. Clint looked at Steve to find him staring fixedly at the blue paint on the window.

Clint grinned, placing the bag of greasy burgers and fries on the only clear spot on the dining table. "So, how is Lokes?"

Steve snapped his attention to Clint. "They locked him back in the box."

Clint made a face of commiseration, opening the bag of burgers and sniffing deeply to enjoy the wonderful sent of burgers, fries, and grease. He unloaded the bag and eyeballed the canvas Steve had set up on the easel near the window. Clint blinked several times and abandoned the food.

No wonder Steve put paint on the window. Clint wanted to find the paint and slap some other colors on the window just to see what it'd do in the sunlight.

"Steve, what is this stuff?"

"Hmm?"

"What did you do to the paint to make it…do this?"

The colors were vibrate. They danced in the light, glittering in a surreal way. Clint might not know a lot about art, but he whatever he was seeing was otherworldly. The paint splashed across the canvas sparkled. The same went for the blue paint Steve had splashed on the window, only it was amplified by the direct sunlight filtering through it. Clint approached the window and cocked his head to the side, swearing he could see tiny crystals dancing through the air.

It was bizarre and utterly breathtaking.

"I used some of the paints I got on Asgard. I thought the inks were amazing," Steve said, appearing next to Clint and picking up an old fashion, leather bound book off the cover was imprinted with something that looked Norse-like. "This is the sketchbook I kept after Loki told me where I could get some art supplies."

Steve made a strange face, but handed the book to Clint and picked up the burger Clint had brought from a greasy spoon type of joint that he favored.

Clint flipped through the sketch book and let his mouth hang open.

"Amazing, huh? And guess what?"

"What?" Clint asked, glancing up at Steve from the drawing of Jess and Loki playing cards while Loki was behind a sheet of glass.

"Guys don't do art on Asgard," Steve said, wearing a peculiar expression. "You should have seen the dirty looks Odin gave me after I got that box. They were nothing like the looks he was giving me before."

Steve snorted, unwrapping the burger.

"Yeah, I guess I can see that. Not very war like, drawing."

Steve made a dervish noise, but didn't respond with words as he was a little busy snarfing his burger down. Clint continued to flip through the sketch book, noting the Loki drawings far outnumbered anything else.

"So, uh, besides discovering the joys of art supplies, what else did you do on Asgard?"

Clint waggled his eyebrows at Steve, who blankly stared at Clint for a long beat before turning beet red.

"Nothing!"

"You did nothing? Just sat around wallowing about your lack of paper and pens till Loki got you some?" Clint asked, flipping a chair around and sitting down.

"No. Thor showed me around. I met his friends, I saw things," Steve stiffly said, sitting up straighter. He grabbed a napkin and dabbed his mouth rather dainty. Clint raised an eyebrow. Steve caught himself and sighed. "I've been eating with royalty."

"And not Thor?"

Clint had seen Thor eat and he stuffed his mouth like it was going out of style.

"No, I didn't take meals with Thor," Steve said, glancing down at the table before grabbing a paint brush from somewhere and twirling it in his fingers. "I usually ate with Loki if I could, or Jess and Queen Frigga."

Clint nodded, grabbing his burger and unwrapping it.

"Why'd Loki take you and not Tony? Or me?" Clint asked, grabbing a fry out of the bag. He paused to chew before adding, "Tony really wanted to go. He's pissed you got to go and he didn't."

"Loki…Jess would have been…I….Loki…I…Loki…."

Clint smirked. "You and Loki, huh?"

Steve flushed bright red. Clint grinned and took a rather large bite of hamburger to allow Steve figure out what he wanted to say.

"We're…uh…we…Loki….I'm…."

"So, you and Loki got together? Hooked up? Made eyes at one another?"

"Made eyes at one another?" Steve echoed faintly, looking as if he thought Clint was speaking Greek.

Clint shook his head. "So, how's it being with Loki then? Everything you thought it'd be?"

"It's fine," Steve said, his voice a little high. He adjusted his shirt and ran his hand through his hair a few times. "Fine. Fine. Fine."

"Well, if you say it four times, it must be awesome."

If possible, Steve went redder.

You can lie to yourself and all your friends / And pretend that you don't care / But circumstance gets in the way

-Lucky Boy's Confusion, "Fred Astaire"

Tony was not often jealous. He had everything anyone could possibly want: money, fame, and a hot girlfriend. He was a genius, had toys, and influence over important things. Tony was Iron Man, a bonafide super hero. There was nothing for him to jealous about…except maybe one thing.

He'd been left behind during the trip to Asgard.

Tony had not been allowed on Asgard.

And likely wouldn't, if what Jess was saying was true.

"What do you mean mortals aren't allowed?" Tony wailed. "How'd you and Steve get to go?"

"I am not a mortal, I've come to learn. I'm half Smurf!" Jess exclaimed, smiling brightly. "I just…well, don't get the cool Smurf skin."

"Huh?"

"Turns out my mother is actually the Queen of Hell and daughter of a different Loki from another dimension where Loki got it on with some Frost Giant and they had three kids," Jess explained.

"Just like our Norse myths," Tony faintly said, his head trying hard to wrap around what Jess was saying. "Wait, there's yet another dimension?"

"Of course! There's like an infinite number of parallel universes! Haven't you ever seen that Stargate SG-1 episode with the mirror?"

"No, I can't say I did."

"Dude, you'd think Rhodey would have made you watch, as it's about the Air Force. That's why I had to watch it. Johnny, my half-Smurf brother— dude, he never even knew he was part frozen Smurf! What was I saying? Oh, yeah, Johnny was into it because it was about the Air Force and everyone got to fly a fighter jet."

Tony folded his arms across his chest, leaning against the bar. He pinned Jess with a look and asked, "And Steve? Are you going to tell me Steve's part— he can't be also part Frosty Smurf. He was born here and is totally human. Though, if he happened to be part Frosty that'd explain why he was able to touch Loki when he was all Smurfed out."

Jess looked surprised and leaned forward. "He what?"

"Steve carried Loki in from the plane when you'd left him all blue after you stole his magic," Tony said without thinking. "And he was the only one who could touch Loki until he went pink again without getting frost bitten."

Jess stared at Tony unblinkingly. Tony pushed himself off the bar and pointed a finger at her.

"Steve is part Frost Giant, isn't he? Oh! Wasn't Loki like a mini-Frost Giant? That might explain why Steve was so small till he got—"

"No," Jess interrupted. "I can't touch Loki when he's blue. The one time I saw him with his blue skin, I knew he was below freezing when my hand was inches away from his skin. I could feel the cold and bite…if I'd touched him…"

Jess looked away, staring out the window. It was brilliant sunny, yet bleak as it was February in New York. Tony shifted on his feet, leaning against the bar again.

"Maybe it had something to do with his serum," Jess said thoughtfully.

Tony tapped his chin and started pacing the length of the living room, thought rolling over in his head. He'd gone over everything his father had left behind on the Super Soilder project, but hadn't discovered anything that stated they'd used alien DNA or anything not found on Earth. Then again, the Tesseract was found on Earth, yet not of Earth.

"Steve did live in an ice cave for seventy years," Jess reminded Tony. "And he wasn't frost bitten when he came out. Maybe the serum makes him…unable to be frost bitten or something?"

Tony stopped pacing and felt twitchy. He wanted to go to his lab and do something while he pondered the Steve Conundrum.

"If you crashed your plane somewhere in Greenland and got eaten by a glacier, would you have lived?" Jess asked, scratching the side of her face and not looking at Tony.

"He's got the serum thing going for him, remember? That kept him alive."

Not that Tony liked that answer. That was not what the serum was designed for. It was just supposed to enhance human abilities, not enable one to cheat death.

"Yeah, exactly," Jess said, twisting her almost black hair around her fingers. "Think about it, Tony…even if it kept him alive, it shouldn't have put him in stasis, like science fiction stasis. I'm pretty sure he ought to have aged while he was sleeping away. He didn't age at all, Tony. Even if his heart rate and aging had been slowed by the serum to keep him alive, it shouldn't have stopped him aging. He didn't stop breathing and his heart was still pumping while he was down there. He wasn't frozen in a moment of time or anything, he was still alive in the ice, just asleep. Literally. He fell asleep."

Tony gawked at her, realizing she'd hit on the head the point of the Steve Conundrum that had irked Tony the most since the man had been found alive in the ice.

"What are you trying to tell me, Witton?"

Jess swallowed looking away. "That maybe, like me, Steve's not…well, mabye he's got an interesting set of parents as well."

"Can I run more tests on you? They ran tests of Steve up the wazoo before they jacked him up on super syrup, but—"

"Tony, you're an engineer not a biologist," Jess replied, eyeing Tony with a strange look on her face.

Jess had been kind of…different since she'd returned from Asgard. She wasn't as strange, wasn't as over the top with the singing out of tune, and she wasn't…well, it could be because she wasn't slowly going crazy any longer. Internally, Tony had to admit the person he'd gotten to know before the events of Christmas season from hell wasn't who Jessica Witton really was.

He wasn't sure if the person in front of him was even Jessica. The only person who'd known Jessica before Evil Loki mind controlled her was currently sitting in a white box on Asgard twiddling his thumbs.

So, Tony did what he did best when things failed to go his way: he pouted. (He would never admit he pouted, as it wasn't very manly, but if he was going to be honest with himself as his therapist was insisting, he pouted.)

"I didn't get to go to the alien planet and now I can't discover how one lives a long life?"

"You're genes aren't right," Jess said, turning her back to him and staring out the windows over the skyline of New York.

"What about Steve?"

"That was a terrible movie," Jess said, her back till to him.

"Uh, I think the movie was What About Bob?" Tony corrected.

Jess turned to face him and said, "Oh, duh. It was All About Steve. That was the horrible one."

Before Tony could get back on topic, Jess changed the topic to the rebuild of his Malibu home. Seeing a something familiar about her stance and facial expression, Tony latched onto the topic and began to rant and rave about the fact it was the third time he had to rebuild the place in the past two years.

As the figures fade into the distance / You're at home now, no need for resistance / Like marble exterior so cold / But like magic your soul puts things on hold

-JJ72, "Sinking"

"So, what really went down between with Steve and Loki?" Clint asked Witton about a week after she and Steve had returned to Earth from Asgard. "Every time I ask Steve, he turns red, says 'fine' four times and clams up."

Witton snorted into the mug of hot chocolate she held between her hands as the pair took in the city lights on the balcony of Stark Tower. It was a little colder than Clint cared for, but he had about seventeen layers of high tech clothing on to keep him warm. Since returning from Asgard, Witton craved colder temps. Besides Steve, Clint was the only one who indulged her need to freeze her butt off.

"Oh, you know," Witton began, smiling softly, "they both had crazy crushes on one another and had no clue what to do."

Clint nodded. "Yeah. Anyone could see Steve was smitten."

Witton smiled larger. "Smitten. Yeah, that's the right word. Steve was very smitten with Lo. Clearly something happened while I was going whacko, but neither has really shared what exactly lead to Steve being on Asgard and them making eyes at one another. I would ask, but I'd get a similar reaction you're getting out of Steve and Loki tended to…well, when I would ask, he would never give me a straight answer. But, something went down when I was out. They seriously make googly eyes at one another."

Clint spit out the sip of coco he'd just taken. "Googly eyes?"

"Yeah. When they don't think either one is watching the other, they make goggly eyes at one another. It's so cute it's sickening."

Clint snorted. "I'm sure. I thought you girls liked that stuff?"

"Oh, we do. When it's happening to us, but when it's someone else…not so much. Mostly found myself being jealous of their fresh, blossoming love affair."

"Really?"

"Okay, not really. It sucks for them, as I guess shortly after they…uh, got together, Loki got locked back up. No touching. I could tell that was frustrating Loki, but Steve…well, he's Steve. I doubt he's capable of having dirty thoughts."

Clint snickered. "I know. Poor guy."

"Which one?"

"Loki."

Witton laughed. "Yeah. Well, it's only a few more months. Loki has six months left…so, he'll be back in the summer."

"Yeah. You cold?"

"No. Nice and toasty in my jacket."

Witton was only wearing a fleece jacket, granted one issued to the Agents of SHIELD, so it was the best of the best, but still. Clint had one, plus about a hundred other layers to deal with the bitting cold.

"Just because I'm Texan doesn't mean I can't do cold," she muttered. "And remember I run hotter now than I used to. I'm like the opposite of Loki now. He runs cold, I run hot…and yet we both do better in colder temps. Odd."

"Yeah, I think you've got less heat tolerance than Lokes these days," Clint snickered, remembering what Coulson had told him about Jess's reaction to the heat of New Mexico in January.

"I like cold now. Cold is cool."

I don't want you to give it all up / And leave your own life collecting dust

-Hoobastank, "Running Away"

"PEPPER!"

"What, Tony?"

"Where is Jess?"

"I don't know," Pepper said, sounding tired. "Have you tried upstairs? She is usually on her own floor these days."

"I looked there. Bruce hasn't seen her all day either. Steve and Clint haven't heard from her either. It's been three hours."

"I don't honestly care where she is."

Tony gasped. "What? How can you be so cold, Pep?"

"I'm not being cold. Jess is her own woman. She can leave the tower and do her own thing without informing you, Tony. I've got other things to worry about right now," Pepper said, sounding distracted.

"Fine. Bye."

He hung the phone up and spun around in his chair. "JARVIS, are you sure Jess's not here?"

"Yes, sir, I am quite sure Ms Witton is not in the tower."

"And you have no idea when she left?"

"She left three hours ago," JARVIS replied.

"Did she say where she was going?"

"No, sir. She left her phone behind, so I am unable to trace her."

Tony grabbed his hair and tugged, knowing something wasn't right. Part of Tony knew he was over reacting. Jess had only been gone for three hours. She was likely shopping or something. And yet, something was making Tony worry.

He hated when he worried.

Tony went back to her floor and poked around till he realized something: that purple purse she'd brought with her from Other Earth wasn't in her closet. After doing a through search of her living quarters, Tony realized everything she'd brought with her from Other Earth was MIA.

"JARVIS, call Clint and Steve. Now."

This is not goodbye she said / It is just time for me to rest my head / She does not walk, she runs instead

-Maroon 5, "Must Get Out"

Clint was the one to find her. It took him a few minutes to realize she wouldn't run back to Texas, where Tony and Steve were both convinced she'd head. Clint let the pair fly off to search the massive state of Texas while he hopped a flight to Anchorage, Alaska.

Once he landed in Anchorage, he rented a car and began driving. Witton wasn't familiar with Anchorage, as she'd never set foot in the state of Alaska as far as Clint was aware, and yet he knew the draw the state would have for her.

She liked the cold now. Even if Texas was familiar to her, she'd be uncomfortable there now.

Within a few hours, Clint found Witton at Earthquake Park. She hadn't ventured all that far from the airport. He parked his car in the empty parking lot. Jess didn't turn around as Clint got out of the car and walked towards her. The day was blindingly sunny, but it there was a cold breeze in the air reminding him that it was still February and he was in Alaska, land of cold, snow, and dark, never ending winter nights. He huddled into his coat as he came to rest next to Witton, who was standing near the edge of a cliff staring at downtown Anchorage. Clint was somewhat surprised to see there were tall buildings making up the skyline of the city.

"I heard once that February was the best month to visit," Witton said over the noise of the wind and landing planes.

"You do know you're making two well known superheroes kind of crazy right now?" Clint asked, standing a little closer than socially acceptable. It was cold and Witton radiated heat. Witton didn't seem to mind, as she stepped even closer to him. Clint wrapped his arms around her. She had been standing here for quite awhile, as she smelled cold. It clung to her dark, wild hair.

"My therapist said I needed to get away from the superheroes. I'm not a superhero, Clint," Jess said, resting her head on his chest. Her voice blew back to his ears on the wind. "While I might live for a long time, heal faster than normal, I've got no skills. I'm not a super genius, I'm not a mad scientist, I'm not a demigod, I can't shoot anything, and I'm not a trained killer. I'm Jessica Witton: half Frost Giant, half mortal."

Clint tighten his grip on her.

"So, you're moving to Alaska?"

"SHEILD's got a base here in Anchorage. Fury was more than happy to shuffle me off up here and set me up. I've got a rather nice townhouse on the east side of town, I've already enrolled in beauty school so I can learn to cut hair to go along with my mad makeup skills."

Clint nodded, resting his chin on the top of her head, not at all surprised to find Fury had set her up and organized her a new life.

"I'm starting over, Clint. Fresh, clean slate. I gotta do this. For me," Witton said quietly, turning his arms. She looked up at him with pleading eyes. "I can't…I can't do the superhero thing. Give me a little power and I started channeling Bag of Cats Loki."

Clint felt sad, but nodded his agreement.

"I don't want Tony to know where I am, but I'll give you my new number. Give it to Steve so he can stop freaking out."

"So, we can come see you?"

"Yeah. And after I get…better, I'll let the others know where I am. I knew you'd find me," Jess admitted, stepping out of Clint's arms.

"Why?" Clint said, not letting her get far.

"Because you knew I liked the cold now," Witton said, stuffing hands into her coat pockets. She gave him a rather dazzling smile. Clint studied her, feeling something in his stomach sink. He tighten his grip on her upper arms.

"Okay, Witton. I'll keep you a secret from Tony. He's…really worried."

"I know. I know. I feel horrible, but…with his personality…I can't handle him at the moment. I've got another five months till Loki returns and I want to be…well, better. I have a lot of…issues to deal with. While I don't remember what happened after Killian shot me, I know…I know I did terrible things."

She looked away, her eyes wet. Clint stared at the ground waiting for her to get a grip, but offered comfort through the solid grip on her upper arms he still had.

"I gotta do this, Clint. I'm not a superhero. I'm just a girl from Texas who got messed up with Loki Laufey-Odinson and wound up with a bunch of comic book characters," she said quietly.

Clint looked up and took in the familiar fierce expression on her face. Upon seeing it, he knew she would be fine.

You know it's kind of funny / Texas always seemed so big / But you know you're in the largest state in the union / When you're anchored down in Anchorage

-Michelle Shocked, "Anchorage"

"Jessica has moved out of Stark Tower and is now residing in a small dwelling in Anchorage, Alaska."

"She left Stark Tower?"

"Yes."

"And moved to Alaska?"

"Correct."

"Why would she do that?"

"That, son, I do not know. Ought we worry?"

"I am not sure, Father. Did they not try to stop her?"

"I am told Agent Barton was the only person to speak to her after she made her move. He refused to speak to anyone other than your Steven on the matter. They both have ways to contact her and that eased your mortal's worries."

"How is Steven?"

"He is resigned to her choice. I feel he understands her choice to leave. The tin man is angry."

"Of course he is."

"You do not seem upset."

"I am not sure how to feel."

"You ought to feel proud. She made a choice and I believe it was the right one for her situation," Odin admitted. "Jessica needed a home, so she found one."

Loki studied his father, the lines in his face, the steely expression in his lone seeing eye.

"It is cold in Alaska. From what I am able to discern, it's a temperate version of Jotunheimen," Odin said.

Loki felt his father's eye upon him, waiting for him to explode, his mouth to twitch or for some other show of disgust as his true being. Instead Loki glanced up, met Odin's eye and said, "Yes. That makes sense. She went home."

It can lead a horse to water, in the wake of the dawn / Catch a train from the desk in the office, give you more time to think / Ride it out to the Bible Belt, but hey man, will you drink?

-Common Rotation, "Oklahoma"

Edited 15 December 2014